TGM

I feel like I'm playing freight train roulette every time I chance taking a street that has a street grade RR crossing. Often I'm stuck wishing I could this:

Add the closure of Ella on 610 and the moonshot landing known as the TC Jester exit to the existing construction on I10 and you have one big cluster F. Oh yeah, then there are the trains, which back stuff up no matter where you are headed. The only route that I have found reasonable from my Galleria-area commute is the Washinton exit to Old Hempstead Hwy to 11th street. Everything else is jacked up.

I'm guessing there was not much as a peep from the new architects regarding the saving of the clock. While a cool feature it's not consistent with their "modernization" of the building. With cellphones no one really needs a giant device telling them the time and temperature. Maybe they could place it on top of the Greyhound station to give out the number of parolees on each bus, or the current price of crack. ;-)

There's going to a microphone and camera there tomorrow from 1-2pm. Shelia would not be there without one. Ask her on camera for money to rehab the memorial. http://www.harrisdemocrats.com/349/ceremony_at_wwii_memorial_in_the_heights

It takes a special kind of class to stick your nose in the lives of others.

Probably not, because majority of traffic jams are the result of individual actions as concluded by a recent study.http://gizmodo.com/5984934/most-traffic-jams-are-caused-by-just-a-handful-of-idiots The argument that the Fiat would be better judges traffic as solely being caused by length of vehicle not number of variables per driver. However if the individual is the cause of traffic, then it's ever worse with a small car as now you have doubled the amount of drivers with the potential to make poor choices in the space that would hold one SUV or pick-up driver. So what is viewed as efficiency by fitting more cars in the same space is actually detrimental as the number of drivers and variables has increased.

Cars allow too much freedom and autonomy which is why we overlords must find pet causes and issues to corral the masses into "options" that allow us greater control over their movements. Reliance on municipal services creates further dependance, and can be used to our advantage in games of carrot and stick. The challenge is identifying and staying on top of modern societies' versions of bread and circuses. As it currently stands Superbowl 2017 should provide enough justification for any increase in taxation, fees, and restrictions.

Yeah, mixed use is the end-all-be-all. Throw in one or two apartment spaces ear-marked/subsidized for affordable living and they will have achieved what the brown acid, daisy-chains, and TM failed to materialize.All you have to do is build it, because if you do....

I would take this is a sign that you're doing something right. Dysfunctional systems will do anything, through any means, to justify their ends. Think of the contrast between a set of rules they want everyone to live up to, and the number of rules they are willing to break to retain their grip on power.

For $75 they could get 1000 likes from Egypt. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/05/16/152736671/this-guy-will-sell-you-sell-you-1-000-facebook-likes

Yes, Metro buses do tear up our streets, do cause congestion, and some how get their own lanes.

Every road the government builds is already a toll road. The difference is instead of an EZ tag you use a 1040EZ. (Or at the gas pump, or through property taxes, or, or, or...) Now there those that don't pay any of the above, and yet somehow they feel entitled to demand that those that do pony up even more dollars.

More like Anti-your-Luddite-vision-of-the-Heights. Your labeling of this forum an echo chamber makes sense given your previous statement that the debate was over. Typical tyrant action when views run opposite of ones own vision or belief system. The debate is never over because nothing in life is ever finished. The whole Heights Local movement is preposterous and laughable at best, given that the equally stupid, anti-global market Local movement defines "Local" as a journey of no more than 500 miles. As the Heights grows your 19th street landlords will "turn evil" when they accept the more lucrative rent offers from evil corporate chains.

No. Pay your own way.

Let me guess, mass-transit projects largely funded and subsidized by taxpayers.

Good news!

Why? What is so bloody magical about people having less space and living on top of one another? Do you enjoy waiting in line? Do you reach the counter at the Breakfast Klub, and say "oh, that was not long enough, I'm getting back in line."? If you have big city dreams why not explore NYC, Chicago, Boston, or Philadelphia? Houston will always let you down if this is your true desire.

Besides Westheimer, West Gray, University bvld, Kirby, S. Shepherd, etc. People from the burbs also come to Old Town Spring, which has kept the area alive in the face of declining methamphetamine prices. I think 19th shop owners should be required to remain in character ala Rennesaince Festival workers while tending their shops.

Like things are not already pedantic enough around here... I guess that all depends on what you consider average. DJ's? Audiophiles? College Students? Most of the 220 gram vinyl I see these days is the kids/hipster crowd as this is the demographic that has rediscovered vinyl. The Audiophiles have moved on to SACD, DVD-Audio, Blu-spec CD's and whatever else evolves at that end of things. DJ'S... I see cheap DJ-targeted CD players with pitch control, etc, but I've never come across a cheap Techniques 1200MK2.

How does one get into the queue for RUDH evil project of the year? Is there a link that lists the prerequisites, preferred shadowy associations, and targeted council members? With the pace of our cities growth they must be working overtime.

Nothing is set in stone that states that mom & pops always fail and corporate franchises always succeed. Savy owners and operators know how to meet the needs of their customers or they learn by their costly failure. (Some don't learn, they just have big trust funds) For example... Boomtown Coffee. Good coffee, passionate owner, but I don't go because the cigar smoke from the place next door is so bad that I cannot stand to be there more than 10 minutes. The cigar place has been there longer than Boomtown, and I'm all for people enjoying whatever makes them happy, but there is an impact to adjoining businesses. I'm not sure Boomtown's owners fully grasped what they would be dealing with when choosing that location. I hope they make it, but I won't be surprised if they don't. However, if Starbucks were to show up, and Boomtown inevitably closes 19th street lovers would be crying out that corporations killed the mom & pop. Adapt and change or fall by the wayside.

According to Mint.com Menchis received $450 of our targeted Heights expenditures. Can't seem to locate any money spent at the bohemian trinket shop. Penzy's took in around $300 for gifts and whatnot. Again, can't seem to locate any for musty antique stores. Rather odd... Then again these businesses do stay open later to accommodate demand, rather than shutting down at 420.

Apples and Oranges. The spatterings of industrial complexes in the Heights pales to that in the Eastend. Changes in industry over the years has impacted the Eastend more than industry changes in the Heights. But if you beg to differ on that view, I'll counter that the chicken plant had a greater impact in saving the Heights than the artist collectives on 19th.

I think the Walmart battle was really about Heights folks being incensed that Walmart considered them "Walmart people". It was not about winning, just protesting loud enough to convince others that they were not "those people".

I stopped going there when they refused to do anything about the chronic panhandler who lives there. My guess is that he is about to get a rude awakening from the new owners.